Michigan accent and other American accents thoughts?

[holy_secret]

I've been trying to get rid of my Swedish accent for the past few years. It's going pretty well so far. Native English speakers tend to ask me where I got my native accent from. Yay! Still got some minor swedishness in it though. Like pronouncing CH like SH.

In Swedish, I speak with the Stockholm accent.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Everywhere has an accent, its colloquial language. Slang terms are different depending on where you live. Even in small countries they all have different accents/dialects.
I live in FL, which I feel is the most neutral as far as accents go. We do have a range of accents but the general accent here seems muted compared to other southern states unless you live in the sticks.
Still its a trip to see people come down here from northern states with wild accents or midwestern states with their dang penchant for calling soda "pop". Pepsi, Coke or soda. my Pepsi only pops once, when i break the seal.
Good natured ribbing there, my cousins are from Illinois so we trade accent/slang insults all day, as well as making fun of my Canuck friends for their "eh's". We have ways of making you pronounce the letter "O" correctly. They're too nice to hit back tho.

 

[w9496]

I live in Minnesota, and we have a fairly flat accent. It seems to surprise people because the only reference they have for Minnesotans is friggin' Fargo. NOBODY HERE TALKS LIKE THAT.

 

[Souplex]

As a New Yorker I have no no accent.
I speak American the way it's meant to be spoken. As do most New Yorkers.

 

[DeimosMasque]

I'm from Rochester, NY myself. We have a tendency to pronounce the letter "a" (and all open vowels) as "æ" (Near-open front unrounded vowel, also known as the letter ash).

Here's a handy chart for those confused!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPA_vowel_chart_with_audio

I'm from Seneca Falls! Awesome! Yeah that is really the only bit of an accent I have as well and I've sort of beaten it out of me over the years.

 

[an annoyed writer]

I'm from Wisconsin, but I don't have the dominant accent here. Instead, I speak in a very generic middle-American accent, or what some would call a radio voice.

 

[Salad Is Murder]

So I just realized that I have a accent and you probably do too. Now I'm talking about different words for things and different pronunciation for things. No matter how subtle it is you will notice it when talking to people from different places in the US. Let me give you some examples of a Michigan accent and I can back this up just from living here this is how people actually talk (Anyone from Michigan could help me out here) but here we go. Just read this how its written.

"I went down to the Ciddy with Bolth my friends and my Deeahd. The said some guy Drownded in the river the other day I swear this town gets worse every day. There was a FI-yerr the other day at the supermarket some Kiyd started it trying to smoke some cigarettes. Man its gonna take my FREVer to move out of this state I swear."


Look it up see if this applies to you for your area.


So do you have an accent?

Am I reading this wrong or are you from the U.P., eh?

 

[scorptatious]

Well I'm from California, and as far as I know, I don't have an accent. I guess to people outside my country I might have an "American accent", but other than that, I don't have a very unique way of saying things. At least not around here anyway.

 

[LiberalSquirrel]

Back on topic: I've got a fairly standard accent, since my parents were originally from the Pacific Northwest, the originator of the "standard North American accent." But I've picked up a few Ohioan pronunciations - like "cyalender" (calendar) and "maylk" (milk). But, thank goodness, I have yet to say "warsh" (wash) like some of my friends do.

I haven't noticed any of these accents but maybe it's because I've lived in Ohio most my life. Still I don't believe I've ever pronounced calendar "cyalender", milk "maylk", nor wash "warsh". These pronouncations don't seem common from where I'm from - did you perhaps move to Southern Ohio?

I'm originally from central Ohio and the traveled to Northern Ohio one accent I definitely noticed was the way "root" is pronounced. There's a nearby town up here called Rootstown pronounced Rutstown and according to my calc professor you take the square rut instead of root.

Yep, I moved to southern Ohio. Then I went to university in central, where I was mocked mercilessly for my weird Southern Ohio-isms. Southern Ohio is a bit too close to Kentucky for comfort, and the level of Kentucky/Southern-esque accent varies almost literally from person to person down there.

You traitor. How could you go there, of all places, and leave fair, beautiful Ohio?

Back on topic: I've got a fairly standard accent, since my parents were originally from the Pacific Northwest, the originator of the "standard North American accent." But I've picked up a few Ohioan pronunciations - like "cyalender" (calendar) and "maylk" (milk). But, thank goodness, I have yet to say "warsh" (wash) like some of my friends do.

I know it's horrible, but I had no choice D:

None of them even know how awesome buckeye candies are the blasphemers! XD

Still wear the proper colors when I can though!

Pssh. Michigan doesn't deserve buckeye candies. XD

I do applaud you for flying the metaphorical Ohio flag in enemy territory, though. Wear our colors proudly and often! -salutes-

 

[sextus the crazy]

I'm from Rochester, NY myself. We have a tendency to pronounce the letter "a" (and all open vowels) as "æ" (Near-open front unrounded vowel, also known as the letter ash).

Here's a handy chart for those confused!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPA_vowel_chart_with_audio

I'm from Seneca Falls! Awesome! Yeah that is really the only bit of an accent I have as well and I've sort of beaten it out of me over the years.

Cool, man. I've been out to mynderse a couple of times for cross country meets. Cool to know someone from the area.

 

[Total LOLige]

Can't we Europeans join in the fun? No? Ok then...

In general I think USican accents are quite cool except for one thing, the way some of you pronounce the word box. Instead of pronouncing it like "b-ox" you say "bah-ks" I'm not good at typing how people pronounce stuff.

Spoiler: The way of saying box I like

Spoiler: The way of saying box I don't like(Possible spoilers to the film Seven, I havent seen it)

Also, I really like the accent the characters in the TV show Justified have.

 

[The_Echo]

"I went down to the Ciddy with Bolth my friends and my Deeahd. The said some guy Drownded in the river the other day I swear this town gets worse every day. There was a FI-yerr the other day at the supermarket some Kiyd started it trying to smoke some cigarettes. Man its gonna take my FREVer to move out of this state I swear."

Which part of Michigan is this? I'm by the state line, furthest north I've gone is Detroit, and this doesn't sound like Michigan at all to me.

Sounds closer to the South.

My dialect is the Inland North dialect [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inland_Northern_American_English], which is basically the same as General American.

 

[Fijiman]

I live smack in the middle of Virginia so I usually have a bit of a southern accent. However, I have a tendency to use other accents at random without really meaning to. It's actually kind of hard to explain so I'll just leave it at that.

 

[Ryotknife]

I'm from the Pacific Northwest, so we have a fairly flat, unaccented way of speaking (unless you consider the lack of an accent an accent). I actually find it rather jarring when I meet another American who actually has an accent because I'm so used to hearing everyone talk like me, considering its the way that most TV people speak as well.

question, is that similar to California accent? I have only been to the West Coast once (laguna beach for a wedding) and I was surprised at the lack of accent there too. I think I was expecting everyone to sport a "surfer" accent.

On to the topic at hand, I'm from Western New York State. Our accent is apparently similar to Canadians, specifically Toronto with a few differences. We both have messed up "A's"

For example, "aunt" is pronounced the same as "ant"

EDIT: nevermind apparently my accent is called the Inland Northern American English. Thanks The_Echo.

 

[Tahaneira]

I'm another north-westerner. I practically live in Seattle, though it's really just the outskirts. As a result, I mostly have the non-accent others have already commented upon. Except for a few specific cases. See, my parents are from the east coast, and my sister was born and spent the first five years of her life in Queens (New York, for those not familiar with the area). So though I usually have the neutral accent, sometimes when I'm tired I'll slip into a New York style of certain words. Like hot duawg, or duawh. (There isn't actually a u-sound in there, but just tacking on an aw in place of an o doesn't quite capture the full affect. Also I'm not sure if that's the proper effect, but screw it, I'm tired.)

 

[Ryotknife]

I'm another north-westerner. I practically live in Seattle, though it's really just the outskirts. As a result, I mostly have the non-accent others have already commented upon. Except for a few specific cases. See, my parents are from the east coast, and my sister was born and spent the first five years of her life in Queens (New York, for those not familiar with the area). So though I usually have the neutral accent, sometimes when I'm tired I'll slip into a New York style of certain words. Like hot duawg, or duawh. (There isn't actually a u-sound in there, but just tacking on an aw in place of an o doesn't quite capture the full affect. Also I'm not sure if that's the proper effect, but screw it, I'm tired.)

(scratches head) I thought that was a Jersey thing?

Like swuawce (sauce)

 

[MysticSlayer]

No matter how subtle it is you will notice it when talking to people from different places in the US. Let me give you some examples of a Michigan accent and I can back this up just from living here this is how people actually talk (Anyone from Michigan could help me out here) but here we go. Just read this how its written.

"I went down to the Ciddy with Bolth my friends and my Deeahd. The said some guy Drownded in the river the other day I swear this town gets worse every day. There was a FI-yerr the other day at the supermarket some Kiyd started it trying to smoke some cigarettes. Man its gonna take my FREVer to move out of this state I swear."

I can only assume you are joking. As someone who lived in Michigan for 6+ years, I can safely say I never, and I mean never, met anyone who talked like that. OK, maybe in Detroit (can't entirely remember), but most of the rest of Michigan wasn't like that, be it Jackson, Battle Creek, Ann Arbor, Lansing, Grand Rapids, or some other small town no one has ever heard of.

OT: I have a mixture. I've lived in Florida, the real American South (Florida's only geographically south, not culturally), Michigan (obviously), and the Northeast. From Michigan and Florida, I picked up the standard American accent, though if I'm going to pick between words that change between regions of the country, I almost always pick Florida's variant. Occasionally I find myself going into a Boston accent with some words, though this has become less prevalent over the last couple of years since I moved from there. As for the Southern accent, I never really picked it up. I may occasionally speak in the more flat tone of the Southern accent, but that occurs about as often as the Boston accent does.

So basically, imagine the standard American accent with a preference for Florida's word choice.

 

[sc1arr1]

Well I'm from northern Michigan.. I have no clue if I have an accent. I assume I do. XD

 

[gritch]

Yep, I moved to southern Ohio. Then I went to university in central, where I was mocked mercilessly for my weird Southern Ohio-isms. Southern Ohio is a bit too close to Kentucky for comfort, and the level of Kentucky/Southern-esque accent varies almost literally from person to person down there.

People from Southern Ohio do seem to get a lot of flank from others. I guess most people don't care for Kentucky. So people in Ohio don't like the people above them or below them. Go figure.

You traitor. How could you go there, of all places, and leave fair, beautiful Ohio?

Back on topic: I've got a fairly standard accent, since my parents were originally from the Pacific Northwest, the originator of the "standard North American accent." But I've picked up a few Ohioan pronunciations - like "cyalender" (calendar) and "maylk" (milk). But, thank goodness, I have yet to say "warsh" (wash) like some of my friends do.

I know it's horrible, but I had no choice D:

None of them even know how awesome buckeye candies are the blasphemers! XD

Still wear the proper colors when I can though!

Pssh. Michigan doesn't deserve buckeye candies. XD

Pity on the fools who do not understand the awesomeness that are buckeye candies. I had to explain what they were to several people while I was up in Michigan. Some didn't even know what a buckeye (not the candy) was.

I do applaud you for flying the metaphorical Ohio flag in enemy territory, though. Wear our colors proudly and often! -salutes-

During my stay in Michigan I friend from Toledo went driving around Ann Arbor - particular right through the University of Michigan with a Buckeye frame and decorations on his licences plate. Brave man, right through the heart of enemy territory sporting his colors. And he kept them up for the duration of the 2 months.

 

[Darklord008]

Being from Michigan, I'll admit to doing "Bolth" and "Ciddy" (sort of), but none of the other ones ring a bell to me. I suspect that those are more from Northern Michigan, as opposed to the cities (like Grand Rapids, where I'm from).